Flight of the Archer
by Mashup
Summary: Clint Barton learns not to "borrow" Tony Stark's helicopter and Tony learns that he's not the only one troubled by the events in New York. A character study of Clint.


A/N: No major spoilers this time. Minor Spoilers for the Iron Man films & Avengers.

* * *

Sometimes it's not enough to run. Sometimes you've got to drive. And then when that doesn't work, you've got to fly.

Clint Barton is not sure at what point in time he started "borrowing" Tony Stark's vehicles. Though he was sure that Stark knew about it, Tony had never called him out on it. He always returned them at the end of his run. He might be a spy and a killer but a thief he was not.

Though he'd gone on numerous drives before, this was his first using a Stark helicopter. Clint took to vehicles like a fish to water. It didn't matter what kind of vehicle it was, he could always operate it. His record in the grand theft auto department had not been entirely clean. He had borrowed many vehicles on his missions before, including the use of motorbikes, cars and at one point, even a truck. He found that he just naturally knew how to steer vehicles.

Though Tony often appeared to act on impulse, he actually operated vehicles with extreme precision and awareness due to his knowledge of mechanics and physics. Clint was the opposite. Though he could plan his ops very methodically, his always operated vehicles based on gut instinct.

And this instinct was never wrong. So when it alerted him to the fact that he being followed, he didn't question it. He immediately tried to shake off whatever object was tailing him. A look on his radar monitor told him that a small airborne object was closing in on him but when he checked around him, he couldn't see anything. He knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed stealth capable drones but those drones were invisible to both RADAR detection and the naked eye. The object that was currently following him was only optically invisible.

Based on the positioning on the RADAR, the object should be just outside his window. Clint wished that he somehow had a giant squirty gun so that he could shoot ink at the invisible object. Unfortunately he didn't and, unlike shooting an arrow, shooting liquid at this altitude and at this speed would spray the liquid everywhere and he would be sure to miss the target completely. Since the UFO was intent on following him, he decided to take the confrontation to ground level.

Manhatten Beach was empty at this time so he directed his chopper there. During the decent, the UFO was still tailing him, always appearing on the RADAR to be right next to the helicopter. It hadn't attacked the helicopter so it must be on a surveillance mission.

Once the helicopter began its decent, Clint engaged autopilot. Then he waited. The object was matching his decent velocity exactly and he knew more or less where it was. Then as the chopper reached a distance where jumping was not suicidal, he opened the hatch. As he jumped, he shot his weapon straight upwards and the light hit its mark.

As soon as he landed in the sand, he rolled sideways because the object would fall directly on him if he didn't.

"Well I'll be damned." He smiled at the Iron Man suit that now lay in the sand beside.

The suit's helmet opened up to a loud "ouch" as Tony continued to lie there, unable to move. He actually wasn't expecting Hawkeye to pull a move like that and though his suit was insulated against bullets, it was not resistant to electromagnetic pulse guns. Ironically, the gun that Clint fired, which disabled the Iron Man suit had been manufactured by Stark Industries. In short, he had just been shot by his own gun.

"Stark, if you wanted your chopper back, you could have just radioed." Clint laughed.

"I was testing…." Tony replied, breathless.

"You're very lucky I didn't torpedo you in the clouds." Clint smiled as he shook his head.

"Well, the reflective panels are working." Tony managed.

"Yes but you were still showing up on my RADAR scan." Clint pointed out.

"Yes. About that." Tony said as he struggled to get up. He pulled himself into a sitting position.

"So, you can make yourself invisible but not undetectable." Clint observed as he began walking backwards in front of Tony.

"I'm working on it." Tony muttered as he followed Clint along the beach and away from the helicopter.

"Why did you follow me?" Barton asked the older Avenger.

"I told you, I was testing my suit." Tony replied.

"Uh-huh." Clint nodded, not believing him for a second. "What model are you on now?"

"This is Mark 48." Said Tony.

"You still haven't told me why you were following me yet." Clint reminded him.

"Well you never bother to explain why you keep taking off with my stuff either." Tony retorted.

"That's because you let me take your stuff." Barton smiled. "I might not be a techno wiz like you but even I know that JARVIS wouldn't let me leave the building with your toys unless you allowed it."

"Maybe JARVIS just really likes you." Tony muttered in reply.

"For the record, Sir, I do like Agent Barton. But I still wouldn't be able to give him control over your vehicles without your say so." JARVIS spoke up from Tony's suit.

"Why did you shoot me at a non-fatal height, anyway?" Tony asked the archer. "I mean you assumed that I was a drone, didn't you?"

"Yes I did. But I also know that I'm dealing with Tony Stark so it didn't surprise me that you had come up with an invisible Iron Man suit." Clint laughed.

"You picked a good landing spot." Tony complemented as they both turned to look back at the helicopter, sitting in the sand.

"I don't get it. If you designed the gun to disable machines similar to your suit, why didn't you make your own suit resistant to them?" Barton observed.

"Sometimes you have to fire before you aim." Tony tried to come up with a metaphor that Hawkeye could relate to.

"Come again?" Clint asked.

"Well, when designing defensive weapons, you need to know what you're defending against." Tony explained. "That's why I always make offensive weapons first and then I try to figure out how to defend myself against my own weapons."

"You know, I could be wrong." Said Clint. "But some people call that making it up as you go along."

"Well, yeah. There's that too." Tony agreed as they arched their way very slowly back the other way in a long U bend.

"I can't get it out of my head." Clint tried to explain his love of running (and borrowing Tony's vehicles to do it).

"Then don't fight it. Find someone you trust and talk about it." Stark suggested.

"How?" Barton replied. "How do I find someone who can understand what it's like to have your mind being taken over by somebody else?"

"Well you weren't the only one. Dr Selvig was also under Loki's control." Tony reminded him.

"That was different. He didn't kill nobody." The archer shook his head.

"No, he just created a portal that let in aliens that destroyed half of New York." Tony laughed, Sarcastic.

"He doesn't have to see them." Clint closed his eyes. "When he closes his eyes, he might see a building falling or something. I have to see their faces and their eyes."

"He wasn't completely controlled." JARVIS pointed out. "And neither were you."

"What do you mean?" Clint asked as they came to a stop in front of the empty helicopter.

"He was aware enough that he built in a switch that allowed Agent Romanoff to close the portal." JARVIS tried to explain. "And, Ms Romanoff tells me that you were aware enough when you fought with her that you didn't try to use any fatal moves on her. Somewhere in your subconscious mind, you were aware enough that you knew that you did not want to kill Natasha, despite what the other side was telling you."

"She said that?" Barton was taken aback.

"Mind control technology is never fool proof. It can be used to change a person's actions but it cannot change a person's core values." JARVIS tried to explain as Clint climbed into the chopper and Tony followed him, still wearing his Iron Man suit. "The cube was able to make you kill because you are an assassin and killing strangers is nothing new to you. But it could not make you murder your friends because this is not something you would normally do."

"But I was still a danger to everyone and my presence put everyone in danger." Clint countered.

"Barton, you're an assassin. You're always gonna be dangerous." Tony reminded him. "And that's okay. Coz you know what? We're all dangerous. And Fury knew that when he brought us together."

"I thought you didn't want to be in it." Said Barton as he restarted the engine.

"I still don't." Tony affirmed.

"Yet, somehow our headquarters are based in your tower." Clint replied.

"Yep." Tony nodded as they started their ascent.

* * *

A/N: Hawkeye as presented in this story suffers from the same lack of character development as was present in the film but since I haven't read the comics, I'm not sure how to remedy that :) I think the actor did really well with the material that he was given.

A/N: To explain JARVIS's presence in the story where he was initially knocked out, I'm going to say that the pulse coming from Barton's gun only temporarily disabled the suit and although it gave JARVIS a headache, it was not enough to remove him completely from the story.


End file.
